Vibrating bucket apparatuses are commonly employed to assist in the excavation of hard material such as rocks and frozen ground. Such bucket apparatuses generally include a vibrating mechanism which is connected to a u-shaped cutting edge assembly to pivotally reciprocate the cutting edge assembly in a fore and aft direction.
The bucket apparatuses in essence use a vibrating mechanism to move the u-shaped cutting edge assembly. One of the problems associated with the currently available vibrating bucket apparatuses is that the vibrating mechanisms do not provide the necessary force for the cutting edge to fracture the material which is to be excavated. The vibrating buckets operate on a displacement control technology and are limited to light duty applications and have limited performance and low reliability in harder materials. Also when marginal conditions are encountered dangerous and destructive vibration levels are sent back to the base vehicle. Another problem associated with current bucket apparatuses is that the cutting edge assembly is not guided during pivotal movement, therefore the cutting edge tends to move laterally and become distorted.
Various attempts have been made to provide a vibrating bucket apparatus to aid in excavation of hard material. The major disadvantage is that the vibrating mechanisms do not deliver enough force to the material and the u-shaped cutting edges tend to twist and distort.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.